A network-enabled workflow system is used in conjunction with a rules-based search engine to provide an easy-to-use interface to build workflow processes that facilitate the support for electronic business applications as well as business-to-business relationships. The system allows workflow services to be rendered to external organizations such as partners, suppliers, distributors and customers. Workflow services are preferably represented by roles that can be used to represent workflow actors in the workflow routing rules. These roles are preferably evaluated at run-time to best match recipients (via the MORSE algorithm) depending on the organization context from which the routing request is made. Furthermore, the network-enabled workflow system provides for the analysis of workflow processes in real time.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes in an organization, said system comprising: a workflow segment designer creating one or more work flow steps defining a set of routing rules for one or more resources that trigger said workflow steps; a sub-flow designer creating one or more sub-flow processes, said sub-flow processes incorporating one or more of pre-existing internal workflow processes; a condition designer creating one or more workflow conditions based on one or more formulas, said conditions specified in one of the following ways: success, failure, a percentage of a success or a percentage of a failure; an external process designer creating one or more external process work flow objects, said objects exchanging data with one or more sources external to the organization in said network; a workflow analyzer analyzing in real-time said one or more workflow processes; said system creating workflow processes using said workflow segment designer, sub-flow designer, condition designer and external process designer, and said system routing said one or more resources locally and remotely using said set of routing rules and said intelligent search engine, and said system analyzing, via said workflow analyzer, said created workflow process in real-time to optimize work flow functionality, wherein said intelligent search engine is a rules-based engine.
2. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 , wherein said system further comprising a deadline handler that provides for control of workflow processing times through deadlines.
3. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 2 , wherein said deadlines is defined in one of the following ways: based on a value extracted from a form or based on a predefined deadline.
4. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 , wherein said system further comprises a requestor filter to restrict said routing based on identities of requesters triggering said workflow steps.
5. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 , wherein said rules associated with said rules engine are stored in a rules database.
6. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 , wherein said formulas are interpreted using said intelligent search engine to determine appropriate work flow recipients for said one or more resources.
7. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 wherein said created workflow processes are stored in a central database for future access by other workflow processes.
8. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 , wherein said system further comprises a workflow administration manager setting the frequency and priority of said created workflow processes.
9. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 8 , wherein said workflow administration manager is implemented using a Java serviet.
10. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 , wherein said workflow analyzer further comprises a statistical analyzer analyzing workflow history of said workflow processes.
11. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 10 , wherein said statistical analyzer further comprises: an average processing time estimator calculating an average processing time of each of said one or more, created workflow processes; a daily load estimator calculating a daily load associated with each user in said system, and a global load estimator calculating the overall load associated with each user in said system.
12. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 , wherein said network comprises any of the following: local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), HTTP network, world wide web (WWW), wireless network, PSTN/PBX network, or Internet.
13. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 , wherein said remote source accessed by said external process workflow objects is a remote database.
14. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 1 , wherein said one or more resources to be routed are further updated by accessing a script library.
15. A system for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 14 , wherein said script library is an application programming interface (APT) library.
16. A method for designing a network-enabled workflow management algorithm integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes in an organization, said method comprising: defining one more workflow events that trigger workflow processing; building one or more workflow cycles using one or more workflow objects, said step of building said one or more workflow cycle further comprising: creating one or more workflow steps defining a set of routing rules for one or more resources that trigger said workflow processing; creating one or more sub-flow processes incorporating pre-existing internal workflow processes; creating one or more workflow conditions based on one or more formulas; creating one or more external process workflow objects for exchanging data with one more sources external to the organization in said network, customizing one or more routing and notification messages so said one or more resources are routed in said workflow cycle based on customized routing types, routing rules, routing options, and notification messages, validating said created one or more workflow cycles, analyzing said validated one or more workflow cycles in real-time to optimize workflow functionality, and statistically analyzing said validated one more workflow cycles.
17. A method for designing a network-enabled workflow management algorithm integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 16 , wherein said method further comprises setting deadline date controlling workflow processing times in said one more workflow cycles.
18. A method for designing a network-enabled workflow management algorithm integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 17 , wherein said deadline date is defined in any of the following ways: with a handling margin that defines a predetermined amount of time said resources are to stay unprocessed in said one or more workflow processes or defined based on an extracted value from a form.
19. A method for designing a network-enabled workflow management algorithm integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 16 , wherein said method further comprises restricting routing based on identities of requestors triggering said workflow processing.
20. A method for designing a network-enabled workflow management algorithm integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 16 , wherein said method further comprises setting the frequency and priority of said created one or more workflow processes.
21. A method for designing a network-enabled workflow management algorithm integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 16 , wherein said step of statistically analyzing said validated one or more workflow cycles comprising: calculating an average processing time associated with each of said one or more created workflow processes; calculating a daily load associated with each requestor in said one or more work cycles, and calculating a global load associated with each requestor in said one or more work cycles.
22. A method for designing a network-enabled workflow management algorithm integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes, as per claim 16 , wherein said network comprises any of the following: local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), HTTP network, world wide web (WWW), wireless network, PSTN/PBX network, or Internet.
23. A method for designing a network-enabled workflow management module integrated with an intelligent search engine to provide for a real time analysis of workflow processes in an organization, said method comprising: creating one or more workflow processes, said step of creating one or more workflow processes further comprising: creating one or more workflow steps defining a set of routing rules for one or more resources that trigger said workflow steps; creating one or more sub-flow processes, said sub-flow processes incorporating one or more of pre-existing internal workflow processes; creating one or more workflow conditions based on one or more formulas, said conditions specified in one of the following ways: success, failure, a percentage of a success or a percentage of a failure; creating one or more external process workflow objects, said objects exchanging data with one or more sources external to the organization in said network, analyzing said created one or more workflow process in real-time to optimize workflow functionality; routing said one or more resources locally and remotely using said set of routing rules and said intelligent search engine; and controlling workflow processing times through deadlines.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
April 6, 2001
June 20, 2006
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